Iran executes Mohammad Amini Dehaghani over January protests amid widening crackdown on dissent
Iran has executed Mohammad Amini Dehaghani after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in a case linked to the January 2026 protests, according to the judiciary. The execution was reported on Wednesday by the judiciary's news outlet, which said the legal process had been completed. Authorities described the case as part of a broader response to unrest that followed the protests.
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The judiciary said Dehaghani was convicted over alleged attacks during the protests in Dehaghan, in Isfahan province. It said he threw a Molotov cocktail at the governor's office on 9 January 2026, set the building on fire, attacked a police station, blocked roads and damaged public property. Investigators also cited CCTV footage and what they described as his confessions as evidence.
According to the same account, Dehaghani was sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh, a legal category in Iran often translated as waging war against God, and efsad-e fel-arz, or corruption on Earth. The judiciary also accused him of distributing anti-government propaganda, contacting social media accounts linked to the Pahlavi royal family, communicating with anti-government activists online and spreading material intended to disturb public opinion. It said his trial was held in the presence of a lawyer, but gave no details on when he was arrested or how long the proceedings lasted.
The execution comes amid continuing scrutiny of Iran's handling of protest-related cases. Human rights groups have long said such cases are often heard in opaque proceedings and that convictions can rely on confessions alleged to have been extracted under pressure. The authorities have presented the January unrest as a serious security challenge, while critics say the response has been aimed at deterring dissent more broadly.
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The case also sits within a wider pattern of state action after the protests spread nationwide following sudden hyperinflation last December. The judiciary said the unrest led to a wave of violence and property damage, while rights groups have disputed official accounts of the scale and nature of the crackdown. The death toll from the unrest remains contested, with Iranian authorities and rights monitors giving sharply different figures.
What remains unclear is the full timeline of Dehaghani's arrest, trial and sentencing, as well as whether any further legal avenues were available after the Supreme Court ruling. It is also not clear whether other protest-related cases will follow a similar path in the coming days. The execution is likely to intensify attention on Iran's use of capital punishment in cases tied to political unrest.
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